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Supporters of the Falun Gong movement have taken to frogs and fishes as they add fuel to the fire sparked by comments from Richard Fadden, Canada’s top spymaster, who publically expressed his concerns about foreign entities influencing local politicians.
“Like a frog put in a pot that is slowly heated, by the time the frog feels the water is too hot, the frog can do nothing to help himself, ” warned the Falun Gong-friendly Epoch Times.
In the blogosphere, Between Heaven and Earth has posted an article on the subject that analyses; “Once the hooks are in, they stay in, and if gently played the fish might never realize what has just happened.”
In the same vein of comparing China’s influence on Canada to frogs and fishes, here is one for the Falun Gong movement – if you live in an aquarium, don’t throw stones.
Canada’s Falun Gong followers say that Fadden’s comments corroborate and match their experience with the Chinese government over the past decade. (read our commentary – ‘In China’s model, anyone and everyone is a potential intelligence asset’ – at asianpacificpost.com)
What they don’t say is that the comments also match the two-faced approach of many of the movement’s practitioners – (read our editorials – Hypocrisy in slow motion, Crouching dancer, hidden jargon and Is the Falun Gong an evil, anti-gay cult? – at asianpacificpost.com).
The Falun Gong movement is rooted in the bizarre belief system of a mystery man called Li Hongzhi, who preaches that Africa has a two billion-year- old nuclear reactor, that aliens who look human, but have “a nose made of bone,” invaded Earth to introduce modern technology and whose teachings are at “a higher level than those of Buddha and Christ.”
He apparently also can fly and has the power to telekinetically implant the falun, or law wheel, into the abdomens of his followers, where it absorbs and releases power as it spins.
Today, his army of adherents, which is mainly ethnically Chinese and outlawed by China, is quick to criticize Beijing for using “fronts” to discredit the Falun Gong movement, while the group itself uses the same techniques.
In the Falun Gong Diaspora, followers run printing presses, newspapers, websites, TV stations and stage productions to highlight communist China’s repression of their movement. They try to influence local politicians to declare Falun Gong Days, have established an entity called Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong and hold petition drives when their permanent protest structures are ordered taken down for violating city bylaws, as it happened in Vancouver.
Much of their actions, from morbid street skits to silent demonstrations to noisy parades, are aimed at influencing Canadians and creating agitation against Beijing.
Readers of the Asian Pacific Post newspaper in Vancouver know this all too well. The award-winning paper was held hostage by Epoch Press, which is operated by Falun Gong followers in Burnaby, because they did not like the “balanced approach” to a story about a show called Divine Performing Arts. (see ‘Falun Gong printer quashes independent press’ at asianpacificpost.com)
As the case winds through the B.C. courts, the printer has apologized and made overtures to distance the Falun Gong movement from the actions, despite those actions directly stemming from his beliefs and that of his workers.
Curiously, the printer Frank Cui has hired one of Canada’s top law firms which has extensive ties in China, to defend his right to kill news stories that he deems unfavorable.
The law firm, ironically, counts in its ranks former prime minister turned millionaire-lobbyist, Jean Chretien, who has been declared “China’s best friend in Canada” for his unabashed sinophilia and frequent pilgrimages to meet China’s top dogs, some of whom Falun Gong followers blame for their persecution.
Cult expert Rick Ross said when Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi talks about “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” neither he nor his followers actually demonstrate any tolerance concerning critical questions or inquiry.
Within Falun Gong, Li’s followers are not allowed to question the basic assumptions of the group and criticism from outsiders is often characterized as “persecution”, states Ross, who has been accepted as an expert witness across the United States in numerous court cases.
Ross is especially critical of Li Hongzhi’s encouragement of hatred towards gays (Volume II of Zhuan Falun, the movement’s bible which was translated into English in 1996) and his depiction of the children of mixed-race couples as “intellectually incomplete”.
Maria Chang of the University of Nevada, who wrote a book about the Falun Gong, said the movement treats organizations it has created as front components to influence public opinion through propaganda campaigns.
Sounds very much like what Fadden was talking about doesn’t it?